“The building has hit fire code,” the security guard told me. “500 people.” Some of the people outside were holding tickets. I asked the guard if I could use the bathroom out in the hall. He sighed, shrugged and said, “I’ll remember you.” I decided not to risk it.

--

Also, two days ago I had a (very short) story go up at Opium magazine. It is called Consequences:

I once knew a girl who’d been smothered with a pillow by her lover. It was the same old story, jealousy of this or another. He didn’t get far and she lived, but she became afraid of anything soft.

12/11/09

The Oxford American's 11th annual music issue is out now and this week they put up Q&As with all of the contributors online. If you click here and do a ctrl + f for "Lincoln Michel" you can read me discussing Iggy Pop, Bernhard's The Loser, why U2 is boring and other music-related things. Or you can just scroll way down. Or not click. Hey, I give up. Do what you wanna do.

12/9/09

For those not in the loop, every year The Oxford American compiles a few CDs of amazing tunes from across the spectrum of Southern music. Soul, country, bluegrass, rap, pop...it is all here, likely by artists you have never heard of before. Each track gets an essay (or two or three) to accompany it in the magazine and this year I'm lucky enough to have a piece of mine included. I'm pretty excited to be a part of this because an OA Southern Music issue is always some seriously massive stuff. This year features two CDs, one devoted entirely to Arkansas musicians.